Headline, May12, 2014

''' !WOW! : WOMEN-RISI​NG 

OF BRAZIL '''

RIO De JANEIRO is proof that even nature's most lavish blessings cannot guarantee success.

Rio lost its position as Brazil's political capital to Brasilia in 1960 and its status as the country's business capital to Sao Paulo over the following decades.

'' Gang wars and poor infrastructure have battered its tourist industry''.

The  2016  Olympic Games  represents the city's best chance of reversing decades of decline. But is it capable of seizing the chance?

   

Maria Silvia Bastos Marques  -the head of the  Municipal Olympic Company  has the perfect background to lead an organisation:

That straddles the public and private sectors; a former boss of a steel company and director of Brazil's two biggest companies,  Petrobras and  Vale-  she has also held numerous positions in-

Local government and and served as the first female director on the board of Brazil's huge development bank,  BNDES.

That Ms Bastos Marques has been given this demanding job is another  -and a perfect example-   of the rise of women in Latin America's most populous country. Brazil has a female president,   Dilma Rousseff,    and women have 

26% of the seats in her cabinet. The boss of  Petrobras,  Maria das Gracas Foster, is the only female head of a big oil company worldwide. Grant Thornton, a consultancy reports that women make up:

27% of the senior managers of Brazil's leading companies, compared with a global average of 21%. 

Sweden manages 23%  -  Britain 20%   and the United States 17%.

Forbes a business magazine, calculates that 20% of the country's billionaires are women,  compared with a global average of 10%. Brazil has a higher proportion of woman in the labour force (57%)  than developed countries such as:

France  (52%) or  Britain  (57%) . Then again, one reason why professional women have prospered in that it is easy for them to hire working-class women to mind their children and clean their homes.

Brazil has around  7m  domestic workers,  almost all women.  

Not all figures are so flattering.  McKinsey, another consultancy, reckons women constitute only  7%  of board members.

Less than  9%  of seats in the lower house of Congress are held by women. But the change has been dramatic:

Brazil was once a macho patriarchal sort of place.; in 1960 women had an average of  six children  and only  17%  worked outside the home.

Women have been flooding into the workforce, especially in the bigger cities.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett,  the president for the Centre for Talent Innovation, an American Think-Tank,  says  that  80%  of the Brazilian female graduates she surveyed aspire:

'''To the  Top Job  in their workplace, compared with  52% of their American sisters'''.

Indeed, by any measure,  Brazilian women are making remarkable progress, not least in business.

The Honour and Serving of this Post continues. Just don't miss the next one and do share forward.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Brazil. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Drop Zone '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless